A wide variety of systems are conventionally known for cutting or mowing grass. One such system involves the use of a mower attachment including a plurality of blade assemblies. This removable attachment is connected to the front of a vehicle, such as a small tractor, which is used to push the attachment during the mowing process. Such a system includes a plurality of blade assemblies spaced apart from each other within a housing. During the cutting process, air flows underneath the housing while the cutting action is in progress. The air flow carries the grass clippings through a discharge chute which is typically located on one side of the attachment.
Although such mowing systems are widely used, conventional systems include a number of drawbacks. For example, the air flow through the attachment system during the mowing process is quite inefficient in that the air flow is inefficiently directed inside the housing resulting in some of the air flow “swirling around” the inside of the housing. This causes some of the grass clippings to not quickly and/or directly flow through the discharge chute. In some instances, a substantial percentage of the grass clippings will not flow out the discharge chute at all, instead simply collecting on the ground along the path of the mower. Alternatively, some of the grass clippings may collect on the inside of the housing, while others may even blow out through the front of the unit under certain circumstances. All of these actions cause serious distribution issues for the user, as the amount of time needed to distribute all of the grass clippings increases substantially due to this inefficient air flow.
It would therefore be desirable to develop a method for more efficiently directing the air flow through a mower attachment, such that grass clippings are efficiently directed out of the discharge chute with minimal misdirection.